I am from tobacco road so i know a bit.

The claim that the cigarettes the man was selling were "untaxed" can only be true if the cigarettes were bought in a state other than NY. Otherwise, the taxes were paid when the pack was purchased. This guy was just "breaking a pack" and selling them individually, most likely. because the taxes are so high in NY nobody can afford to buy whole packs in his socio-economic group.

If he was carrying the pack with him, it would be easy to say in what state the taxes were paid.

No doubt, if the pack had NC tax stamps, the police would have informed us of the fact right away. So, gotta figure they were bought in NY.

I suppose there might be a sales tax issue, but that is not the implication. and yard sales do not collect them either but don't result in anyone's confrontation and death.

This is all about bully cops in this incident, IMO.